Overview

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Active travel data across Scotland from Jun 2017 to Jan 2022.

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Cyclists – Total Count by Month & Year

Pedestrians – Total Count by Month & Year

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Counter Data Summaries

Cycling Scotland’s National Monitoring Framework (NMF) Counters

Total count per year
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 total
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 121,410 334,577 1,079,064 2,061,402 1,973,245 124,829 5,694,527
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 321,198 910,552 3,711,360 7,784,947 9,979,776 400,161 23,107,994
Average daily count across counters
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 48 41 60 96 90 63
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 221 183 293 506 649 300
Average daily count, overall
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 26 38 123 235 225 168
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 68 104 424 886 1139 538
Average hourly count
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 0.5 0.4 0.6 1 0.9 0.7
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 2.3 1.9 3 5.3 6.8 3.1

 
Focusing on the NMF counters, at end Jan 2022 approximately 5.7M bikes and 23.1M pedestrians had been recorded going past all counters. Average count per day dropped in 2018 for both types of counters before starting to rise again. Looking at counts overall, cycling peaked in May 2020, two months after the first COVID-19 lockdown was imposed, then continued to drop after plateauing over the summer. Despite further restrictions in 2021 cycling counts dropped overall, even with higher counts than seen over the summer months in 2020. Counts then started to drop after the highest peak to date in Aug (2021) to the lowest counts recorded for 2021 in Dec, even with an increase in counters across the country.
Walking, overall, continued to rise in 2021. But even this started to decrease in April, and by June had dropped below the same month in 2020. However, both cycling and walking started to rise again in Jul 2021, both over the 2020 figures, but then started to fall again in Aug. Walking rose in Sep before starting to fall again in Oct, and as for cycling, to its lowest count in 2021 in Dec.

 

The data now also includes council-managed counters. However, the much larger number of counters and denser network in the two largest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, skew the data especially when looking at totals. We therefore compare data across location and time using predominantly average counts (across locations and/or counters).

Five counters along the John Muir Way, located around the west, central belt are also included in the data reported.

 

Council Counters & the John Muir Way

Total count per year
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 total
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 11,810,449 12,518,475 13,658,287 12,846,208 401,628 51,235,047
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 46,603 90,008 236,291 131,065 2,287 506,254
Glasgow City Council bicycle 3,032,075 3,803,975 2,424,155 3,929,585 398,951 13,588,741
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
47,529 37,142 48,728 3,016 136,415
Stirling Council bicycle
639,243 743,521 1,009,969 46,311 2,439,044
John Muir Way bicycle
33,383 93,623 3,743 130,749
Aberdeen City Council bicycle
66,068 20,573 86,641
Aberdeenshire Council bicycle
50,200 15,970 66,170
North Ayrshire Council bicycle
76,526 25,997 102,523
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
155,540 155 155,695
South Lanarkshire Council bicycle
76,438 24,477 100,915
The Highland Council bicycle
370,741 127,572 498,313
Average daily count across counters
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 978 780 657 617 227
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 60 25 65 36 19
Glasgow City Council bicycle 306 261 154 173 174
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
16 13 19 14
Stirling Council bicycle
85 88 114 60
John Muir Way bicycle
48 51 24
Aberdeen City Council bicycle
29 26
Aberdeenshire Council bicycle
15 14
North Ayrshire Council bicycle
25 25
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
22 5
South Lanarkshire Council bicycle
20 18
The Highland Council bicycle
140 142
Average daily count, overall
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 1348 1433 1555 1466 540
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 7 10 27 15 8
Glasgow City Council bicycle 346 454 276 451 536
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
5 4 6 4
Stirling Council bicycle
73 85 115 62
John Muir Way bicycle
10 11 5
Aberdeen City Council bicycle
30 28
Aberdeenshire Council bicycle
23 21
North Ayrshire Council bicycle
35 35
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
43 0
South Lanarkshire Council bicycle
35 33
The Highland Council bicycle
168 171
Average hourly count
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 38.7 30.9 23 21.6 7.9
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 2.5 1 2.7 1.5 0.8
Glasgow City Council bicycle 12.8 10.9 6.4 7.1 7.1
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
0.4 0.3 0.5 0.6
Stirling Council bicycle
3.5 3.7 4.5 2.3
John Muir Way bicycle
2 2.1 1
Aberdeen City Council bicycle
1.2 1.1
Aberdeenshire Council bicycle
0.6 0.6
North Ayrshire Council bicycle
1.1 1
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
0.9 0.2
South Lanarkshire Council bicycle
0.8 0.7
The Highland Council bicycle
5.8 5.9

Counter Locations

Cycling through the Week

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Cycling – Changes through the Week

Change over Time – Cycling through the Week

Cycling through the Year

Comparing total counts for each data provider and location against averages per hour through the day… this gets more interesting looking at the data month on month, as we can see how cycling changes through the full period for which counters were installed and working. (Note - where the picture is blank no data exists for a provider for that period.)

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Average Monthly Count

Monthly Totals

Variation across Locations

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By Year

By Month

As the Seasons Change

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Monthly Counts per Location

Monthly Totals - As the Seasons Change

 


Rainfall Patterns (mm) - Scotland

Temperature Patterns (C) - Scotland

Changes in Counts by Year

Peak Counts

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Counts vary from 0 to, occasionally, for cyclists, well over 20K within an hour and almost 70K in a single day. The tables below give a feel for when spikes occurred within each dataset; in East Dunbartonshire the peak hourly count occurs on the day with the peak count. Further investigation is warranted wherever an (unusual) spike is seen that does not map to an event in the location, as these sometimes simply alert to a malfunctioning counter.
Any or all of day of the week, time of day and month in the year, and recent weather patterns, road type, in addition to a specific event in a location contribute to variation in numbers of especially cyclists in a location.

Peak Counts

Maximum hourly count for any one counter, across data providers
Provider TrafficMode LocalAuthority Location RoadName RoadType Date Weekday Time Count
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle East Dunbartonshire Kirkintilloch Strathkelvin Walkway
23 Sep 2020 Wed 14:00 24181
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle Edinburgh Edinburgh Harrison Park
03 Jun 2018 Sun 11:00 24150
North Ayrshire Council bicycle North Ayrshire Stevenston Ardeer Quarry
17 Nov 2021 Wed 22:00 8254
Glasgow City Council bicycle Glasgow Glasgow CP Victoria Street / Alison Street
27 Sep 2021 Mon 05:00 1990
Stirling Council bicycle Stirling Stirling Albert Place (Westbound)
10 Dec 2021 Fri 18:00 1739
The Highland Council bicycle Highland Inverness Grieg Street
19 Jan 2022 Wed 22:00 1280
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle North Ayrshire Largs Largs Promenade A-Road 26 Sep 2021 Sun 13:00 1100
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle Perth and Kinross Perth Edinburgh Road (Discontinued 202008)
10 Aug 2021 Tue 05:00 687
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle Na h-Eileanan Siar Port Ness Port Ness
08 Dec 2020 Tue 12:00 415
South Lanarkshire Council bicycle South Lanarkshire Lanark B7078 South of Lesmahagow B-Road 15 Oct 2021 Fri 12:00 116
Aberdeenshire Council bicycle Aberdeenshire Oldmeldrum Couttens Park to Distillery
30 Oct 2021 Sat 09:00 91
John Muir Way bicycle North Lanarkshire Dullatur NCR754, Kilsyth Path 15 Aug 2020 Sat 11:00 71
Aberdeen City Council bicycle Aberdeen City Aberdeen Site B Heathryfold Circle, Scatterburn
24 Jan 2022 Mon 16:00 36
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian Argyll & Bute Dunoon Victoria Parade Path 01 May 2021 Sat 07:00 22171

 

Maximum daily count for any one counter, across data providers
Provider TrafficMode LocalAuthority Location RoadName RoadType Date Weekday Count
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle Edinburgh Edinburgh Peffemill Road (Dial-Up CA)
24 Aug 2021 Tue 80298
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle East Dunbartonshire Kirkintilloch Strathkelvin Walkway
23 Sep 2020 Wed 45979
The Highland Council bicycle Highland Inverness Grieg Street
20 Jan 2022 Thu 9117
North Ayrshire Council bicycle North Ayrshire Stevenston Ardeer Quarry
17 Nov 2021 Wed 8254
Stirling Council bicycle Stirling Stirling Albert Place (Westbound)
16 Sep 2021 Thu 7030
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross Croft-na-Caber
19 Sep 2021 Sun 5203
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle North Ayrshire Largs Largs Promenade A-Road 27 Sep 2021 Mon 4611
Glasgow City Council bicycle Glasgow Glasgow CP West Street / Paisley Road
14 May 2019 Tue 2781
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle Na h-Eileanan Siar Port Ness Port Ness
08 Dec 2020 Tue 1686
South Lanarkshire Council bicycle South Lanarkshire Lanark B7078 South of Lesmahagow B-Road 29 Jan 2022 Sat 507
John Muir Way bicycle North Lanarkshire Dullatur NCR754, Kilsyth Path 15 Aug 2020 Sat 460
Aberdeenshire Council bicycle Aberdeenshire Westhill A944 Path Path 13 Oct 2021 Wed 196
Aberdeen City Council bicycle Aberdeen City Aberdeen Beach Esplanade
10 Oct 2021 Sun 189
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian Shetland Lerwick Cemetery Path Path 01 Sep 2021 Wed 110904

Lerwick – Change through the Seasons

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Lerwick – Change through the Seasons

Monthly Totals - As the Seasons Change

 
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Rainfall Patterns (mm) - Lerwick, Shetland

Temperature Patterns (C) - Lerwick, Shetland

About

 

About the Visualisations

Starting with the installation of 11 bicycle and pedestrian counters by Cycling Scotland's National Monitoring Framework (NMF) in a number of counties predominantly in west, central Scotland, from Jun 2017 and through to Jan 2022. The 63rd counter was installed in Fort William in the Highlands in Aug 2021, and a further three in Edinburgh in Jun and Jul 2021.
The snapshots now also include data from more dense networks of council-managed counters and some points along the John Muir Way. Some councils manage counters outwith their geographical or administrative boundaries; for instance, the City of Edinburgh Council also provides counts for Dalkeith (Midlothian). Where more than one filter is used, the charts will always group (or order) first by location (e.g., hamlet, village, town or city), then local authority, then data provider.
Pedestrian count data is currently available only from NMF Counters. Summaries are shown in the overview section.

Most of the charts are interactive. Mousing over data points will display tooltips with more detail. Click/double-click on legend items to filter data sub-sets. Most charts support zoom in by drawing a rectangle around a region of interest; double-click in empty space to return to the full view or choose reset axes from the toolbar. Alternatively, use the toolbar on the top, right, to interact with each chart.

Charts directly comparing detail by location use a log scale (rather than linear/arithmetic) because of the very large differences in counts (and counters) across locations. For instance, Edinburgh and Glasgow had ab out 40 counters each by 2018, and as at mid 2021, 57 and 75 counters respectively. Being the second and first largest (cities) by population, and Edinburgh being especially dense, directly comparing counts to all other locations dwarfs all other data, including even Stirling and Dundee – we obtain plots with most of the data sitting in the bottom, left-hand corner.

Counter Locations

In the overview section we list all counters – NMF and council-managed, showing installation dates and count per location. It should be noted that there is some delay between counter installation and the point from which data is recorded. Counters that came online within the last month or two may therefore not have any data reported in charts shown. Occasionally, also, a counter may go out of action temporarily and sometimes for significant periods of time.

Data Sources

Counter data may be accessed via Cycling Scotland's Active Travel Open Data Portal. The data feeding into this analysis is updated shortly after the end of each month, to allow for any delays in data reporting.

All data feeding into this analysis is extracted at the level of detail of hourly counts by counter, and then aggregated as required. Data may be accessed via the API; this requires registration and request of an API key. Alternatively, a dump may be downloaded from the portal.
The data is updated on a monthly basis, with a slight delay to allow all counters to report data.


Historical weather pattern data was obtained from the Met Office.